The activities per volume of $^{188}Re$ and $^{99m}Tc$ from their generators are dependent on the specific activity of their mother nuclides $^{188}W$ and $^{99}Mo$ respectively. After a particular lapse of time, the eluted RI activity is exponentially reduced and thus cannot satisfy the needs of clinical application. The purpose of this study is to develop a $^{188}Re$ and $^{99m}Tc$ concentration device with a compact size that can extend the period of use as well as conveniently concentrate the RI. We designed the concentration module by including two-different check valves that do not required any manual on-off operations. In these concentration process, cation exchange resin embedded with Ag and anion exchange resins were used. After completing the concentrating step, the recovering yield was identified to be more than 93% for $^{188}Re$ generators and 88% for $^{99m}Tc$ generators. Moreover, all these procedures were done within 5 min.

Recently, antibody-like scaffold proteins have received a great deal of interest in diagnosis and therapy applications because of their intrinsic features that are often required for tumor imaging and therapy. Intrinsic issues that are associated with therapeutic application of antibody-like scaffold proteins, particularly in cancer treatment, include an efficient and straightforward radiolabeling for understanding in vivo biodistribution and excretion route, and monitoring therapeutic responses. Herein, we report an efficient and straightforward method for radiolabeling of antibody-like scaffold proteins with the $[^{99m}Tc(OH_2)_3(CO)_3]^+$ ($^{99m}Tc$-tricarbonyl) by using a site-specific direct labeling method via hexahistidine-tag, which is a widely used for general purification of recombinant proteins with His-affinity chromatography. Repebody is a new class of antibody-like scaffold protein that consists of highly diverse leucine-rich repeat (LRR) modules. Although all possible biomedical applications with repebody are ongoing, it's in vivo biodistribution and excretion pathway has not yet been explored. In this study, hexahistidine ($His_6$)-tag bearing repebody (rEgH9) was labeled with [$^{99m}Tc$]-tricarbonyl. Repebody protein was radiolabeled with high radiolabeling efficiency (>90%) and radiolabeled compound was more than 99% pure after purification. These results clearly demonstrate that the present radiolabeling method will be useful molecular imaging study.

2-Nitroimidazole derivatives have been reported to accumulate in hypoxic tissue. We prepared a novel $^{99m}Tc-MAG_3$-2-nitroimidazole and evaluated the feasibility for hypoxia imaging agent. $Bz-MAG_3$-2-nitroimidazole was synthesized by direct coupling of $Bz-MAG_3$ and 2-nitroimidazole using dicyclohexylcarbodiimide. $Bz-MAG_3$-2-nitroimidazole was labeled with $^{99m}Tc$ in the presence of tartaric acid and $SnCl_2-2H_2O$ at $100^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. And the reaction mixture was purified by $C_{18}$ Sep-pak cartridge. The labeling efficiency and the radiochemical purity were checked by ITLC-SG/acetonitrile. The tumor was grown in balb/c mice for 8~13 days after the subcutaneous injection of tumor cells, CT-26 (murine colon adenocarcinoma cell). Biodistribution study and tumor autoradiography were performed in the xenografted mice after i.v injection of 74 kBq/0.1 mL and 19 MBq/0.1 mL of $^{99m}Tc-MAG_3$-2-nitroimidazole, respectively. In vivo images of $^{99m}Tc-MAG_3$-2-nitroimidazole in tumor bearing mice were obtained 1.5 hr post injection. The labeling efficiency was $45{\pm}20%$ and the radiochemical purity after purification was over 95%. Paper electrophoresis confirmed negative charge of $^{99m}Tc-MAG_3$-2-nitroimidazole. $^{99m}Tc-MAG_3$-2-nitroimidazole was very stable at room temperature and its protein binding was 53%. The $^{99m}Tc-MAG_3$-2-nitroimidazole exhibited high uptake in the liver, stomach and intestine. In biodistribution study using tumor bearing mice, the uptakes (% ID/g) of the tumor were $0.5{\pm}0.1$, $0.4{\pm}0.0$, $0.2{\pm}0.1$ and $0.1{\pm}0.1$ at 5, 15, 30 min and 4 hrs. Tumor/muscle ratio were $1.4{\pm}0.1$, $2.2{\pm}0.83$, $3.0{\pm}0.9$, and 3.7 (n=2) for 5, 15, 30 min and 4 hrs. The uptake in hypoxic area was found higher than in non-hypoxic area of tumor tissue by autoradiography. In vivo images showed the relatively faint uptake to the hypoxic tumor region. $^{99m}Tc-MAG_3$-2-nitroimidazole was successfully synthesized and found feasible for imaging hypoxia.

$^{188}Re$ is one of the most readily available generator derived and useful radionuclides for therapy emitting ${\beta}^-$ particles (2.12 MeV, 71.1% and 1.965 MeV, 25.6%) and imageable gammas (155 keV, 15.1%). The $^{188}W/^{188}Re$ generator is an ideal source for the long term (4-6 months) continuous availability of no carrier added (NCA) $^{188}Re$ suitable for the preparation of radiopharmaceuticals for radionuclide therapy. Rhenium-188 has been used for the preparation of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals for the management of diseases such as bone metastasis, rheumatoid arthritis and primary cancers. Several early phase clinical studies using radiopharmaceuticals based on $^{188}Re$ -labeled phosphonates, antibodies, peptides, lipiodol and particulates have been reported. In this review, we addressed the current development status of $^{188}Re$ radiopharmaceuticals for liver cancer therapy and their applications.

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 ($HIF-1{\alpha}$) is a transcription factor activated in response to low oxygen level, and is highly expressed in many solid tumors. Moreover, $HIF-1{\alpha}$ is a representative biomarker of hypoxia and also helps to maintain cell homeostasis under hypoxic condition. Most solid tumors show hypoxia, which induces poor prognosis and resistance to conventional cancer therapies. Thus, early diagnosis of hypoxia with positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracer would be highly beneficial for management of malignant solid tumors with effective cancer therapy. YC-1 is a most promising candidate among several $HIF-1{\alpha}$ inhibitors. As an effort to develop a hypoxia imaging tool as a PET radiotracer, we designed and synthesized [$^{18}F$]DFYC based on potent derivative of YC-1 and performed preliminary in vitro cell uptake study. [$^{18}F$]DFYC showed a significant accumulation in SKBR-3 cells among other cancer cells, proving as a good lead to develop a hypoxic solid tumor such as breast cancer.

A bone metastasis is an important factor for prognosis and treatment of breast or prostate cancer patients. [$^{18}F$]Sodium fluoride ([$^{18}F$]NaF) is a PET radiopharmaceutical that can detect bone metastasis. Conventional [$^{18}F$]NaF production process included radioactive metal impurities because the product was prepared by adding saline after beam irradiation to $[^{18}O]H_2O$. In this study, we apply the method of removing radionuclidic impurities. To meet the criteria prescribed by GMP in quality control, we designed the custom-made [$^{18}F$]NaF automatic module. The mean radiochemical yield was $82.1{\pm}4.4%$ (n = 32) productions for 3 years) and the total preparation time was 4 min. The final produced [$^{18}F$]NaF solution meets the USP criteria for quality control. Thus, this fully automated system is validated for clinical use.

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) imaging plays an important role in surgery of patients with breast cancer and melanoma. In this study, avidin (Av), a tetrameric protein glycosylated with mannose and N-acetylglucosamine molecules, was labeled with $^{64}Cu$ and then evaluated for LN imaging. $^{64}Cu$-Labeled $NeutrAvidin^{TM}$ (NAv), a non-glycosylated form of Av, was used for comparison. 1,4,7,10-Tetraazacyclododecane-N,N',N'',N'''-tetraacetic acid (DOTA)-conjugated Av and NAv were prepared from the corresponding proteins and DOTA-NHS ester, which were then labeled with copper-64 and purified using PD-10 columns. The numbers of DOTA molecules conjugated to Av and NAv were 4.9 and 3.3, respectively. [$^{64}Cu$]Cu-DOTA-conjugated Av and NAv were prepared in 93% and 73% radiochemical yields, respectively. In vitro serum stability study showed that copper-64 remained stable on all radiotracers for 24 h (>97%). MicroPET/CT images showed that high radioactivity was accumulated in LNs within 15 min after footpad-injection of radiotracers. Tissue distribution data of mice demonstrated significantly higher uptake in the popliteal (PO) LN than lumbar (LU) LN for $^{64}Cu$-labeled Av (relative % ID/g excluding the injection sites: 66.2% and 26.0%, respectively) compared with those of $^{64}Cu$-labeled NAv (43.0% and 49.2%, respectively). The results of this study suggest that mannose molecules on Av enabled the radiotracer to retain in the first LN after mouse footpad-injection.

Purine type compounds has been recently reported to cause the death for lung cancer cell, related to microtubules-targeting agents (MTAs). Therefore it can be used to develop as theranostic radiopharmceuticals in nuclear medicine or gadolinium-based MRI imaging agents by chelate chemistry. In the study, we tried to chemically bind a DOTA chelate on the end of purine compound and obtained a specific conjugate of DOTA-purine for metal coordination. In particular, radiometal like Cu-64, for the development of MRI imaging agents, can be utilized to choice good candidates before the synthesis of gadolinium complexes. By the screening of radioisotope technique, Gd-DOTA-purine type complex was successfully prepared and showed MRI imaging for lung cancer cell into the mouse model.